| name | campaign-manager |
| description | Goal-oriented binder design campaign planning and health assessment. Use this skill when: (1) Planning a complete binder design campaign, (2) Converting high-level goals into runnable pipelines, (3) Assessing campaign health and pass rates, (4) Diagnosing why designs are failing QC, (5) Estimating time, cost, and expected yields, (6) Selecting between design tools for a specific target.
This skill orchestrates the other protein design tools. For individual tool parameters, use the specific tool skills.
|
| license | MIT |
| category | orchestration |
| tags | ["planning","campaign","coordination"] |
Campaign Manager
Goal-oriented design
From goal to pipeline
When user says: "I need 10 good binders for EGFR"
Campaign Planning:
Goal: 10 high-quality binders for EGFR
├── Achievable: Yes (standard target)
├── Recommended pipeline: rfdiffusion → proteinmpnn → chai → protein-qc
├── Estimated designs needed: 500 backbones (to get ~50 passing QC)
├── Estimated time: 8-12 hours total
├── Estimated cost: ~$60 (Modal GPU compute)
└── Expected yield:
├── After backbone (500): 500 structures
├── After sequence (×8): 4,000 sequences
├── After validation: 4,000 predictions
├── After QC (~10-15%): 400-600 candidates
└── After clustering: 10-20 diverse final designs
Complete pipeline generator
Standard miniprotein binder campaign
curl -o target.pdb "https://files.rcsb.org/download/{PDB_ID}.pdb"
python run_inference.py \
inference.input_pdb=target.pdb \
contigmap.contigs=[A1-150/0 70-100] \
ppi.hotspot_res=[A45,A67,A89] \
inference.num_designs=500
for f in output/*.pdb; do
modal run modal_ligandmpnn.py \
--input-pdb "$f" \
--params-str "--number_of_batches 8 --temperature 0.1"
done
modal run modal_esm2_predict_masked.py --input-faa output/all_seqs.fa
modal run modal_alphafold.py \
--input-faa output/filtered_seqs.fa \
--out-dir predictions/
Total estimated time: 8-12 hours
Total estimated cost: ~$60-70
Campaign size recommendations
| Goal | Backbones | Sequences/BB | Total Seq | Expected Passing |
|---|
| 5 binders | 200 | 8 | 1,600 | 160-240 |
| 10 binders | 500 | 8 | 4,000 | 400-600 |
| 20 binders | 1,000 | 8 | 8,000 | 800-1,200 |
| 50 binders | 2,500 | 8 | 20,000 | 2,000-3,000 |
Rule of thumb: Generate 50x more designs than you need (10-15% pass rate × clustering).
Tool selection guide
When to use each tool
| Scenario | Recommended Tool | Reason |
|---|
| Standard miniprotein | RFdiffusion + ProteinMPNN | High diversity, proven |
| Need higher success rate | BindCraft | Integrated design loop |
| All-atom precision needed | BoltzGen | Side-chain aware |
| Difficult target | Mosaic | Gradient, multi-model objective |
| Need fast iteration | ESMFold2 + ESM2 | Quick screening |
Target difficulty assessment
| Indicator | Easy Target | Difficult Target |
|---|
| Surface type | Concave pocket | Flat or convex |
| Conservation | High | Low |
| Known binders | Yes | No |
| Flexibility | Rigid | Flexible |
| Expected pass rate | 15-20% | 5-10% |
Campaign health assessment
Quick metrics check
import pandas as pd
def assess_campaign(csv_path):
df = pd.read_csv(csv_path)
plddt_pass = (df['pLDDT'] > 0.85).mean()
iptm_pass = (df['ipTM'] > 0.50).mean()
scrmsd_pass = (df['scRMSD'] < 2.0).mean()
all_pass = ((df['pLDDT'] > 0.85) & (df['ipTM'] > 0.5) & (df['scRMSD'] < 2.0)).mean()
if all_pass > 0.15:
health = "EXCELLENT"
elif all_pass > 0.10:
health = "GOOD"
elif all_pass > 0.05:
health = "MARGINAL"
else:
health = "POOR"
issues = []
if plddt_pass < 0.20:
issues.append("Low pLDDT - backbone or sequence issue")
if iptm_pass < 0.20:
issues.append("Low ipTM - hotspot or interface issue")
if scrmsd_pass < 0.50:
issues.append("High scRMSD - sequence doesn't specify backbone")
return {
"health": health,
"overall_pass_rate": all_pass,
"plddt_pass_rate": plddt_pass,
"iptm_pass_rate": iptm_pass,
"scrmsd_pass_rate": scrmsd_pass,
"top_issues": issues
}
Interpreting results
| Health | Pass Rate | Action |
|---|
| EXCELLENT | > 15% | Proceed to selection |
| GOOD | 10-15% | Proceed, normal yield |
| MARGINAL | 5-10% | Review failure tree |
| POOR | < 5% | Diagnose and restart |
Cost estimation
Per-tool costs (Modal)
| Tool | GPU | $/hour | Typical Job | Cost |
|---|
| RFdiffusion | A10G | ~$1.20 | 500 designs/2h | ~$2.50 |
| ProteinMPNN | T4 | ~$0.60 | 4000 seq/1.5h | ~$1.00 |
| ESM2 (PLL) | A10G | ~$1.20 | 4000 seq/30min | ~$0.60 |
| AlphaFold | A100 | ~$4.50 | 4000 preds/4h | ~$18.00 |
| Chai | A100 | ~$4.50 | 500 preds/1h | ~$4.50 |
Campaign cost estimates
| Campaign Size | Total Cost | Notes |
|---|
| Small (100 bb) | ~$15 | Quick exploration |
| Standard (500 bb) | ~$60 | Most campaigns |
| Large (1000 bb) | ~$120 | Comprehensive |
| XL (5000 bb) | ~$600 | Very thorough |
Pipeline variants
High-throughput (maximize diversity)
python run_inference.py inference.num_designs=2000
modal run modal_ligandmpnn.py --input-pdb bb.pdb --params-str "--number_of_batches 4 --temperature 0.2"
High-quality (maximize per-design quality)
python run_inference.py inference.num_designs=200
modal run modal_ligandmpnn.py --input-pdb bb.pdb --params-str "--number_of_batches 32 --temperature 0.1"
Quick exploration (fast iteration)
modal run modal_ligandmpnn.py --input-pdb bb.pdb --params-str "--number_of_batches 8"
modal run modal_esmfold2.py --input-faa all_seqs.fa
See also
- Tool-specific parameters:
rfdiffusion, proteinmpnn, mosaic, chai, boltz, alphafold
- QC thresholds and filtering:
protein-qc
- Tool selection guidance:
binder-design